DRAG ME TO HELL
DRAG ME TO HELL
January 19 2010, DVD, home, from Netflix
Yeah, well. I wish I could say I liked this movie, but I really didn't. Granted, I was trapped in a sickly web of Tramadol (lesson learned; take no more than 1 tablet, because 1 1/2 is too much) and practically clenching the upholstery on my couch to try to keep the nausea at bay, but even so, I wasn't too ripped or ill to see a failed movie when I see one.
DRAG strikes me as a project that director Sam Raimi had been kicking around for ages, and wanted to "return to his roots" by directing a blatantly silly horror movie with lots and lots of physical comedy and gross-out scenes. Problem is, he's already at the top of the fucking heap with EVIL DEAD 2, and seriously, nobody has beat that (some would argue that Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE takes it, but DEAD ALIVE ended up boring me, and that is simply not possible with EVIL DEAD 2; it doesn't rely on repetitious scenes of gore that end up being mostly unmemorable. I can remember almost every single bit of gore or gross-out in EVIL DEAD 2). He cannot reinvent the wheel, and it was dismaying to see him try to do the exact same thing all over again. For those of us who've already seen it, it's a wasted effort.
I do recommend it to people who have never seen ED2, and/or are uncomfortable with gore but love shocks and wild action. But I think Sam Raimi fans can safely stay away. Alison Lohman, who extremely game, is no Bruce Campbell; her character Grace is definitely no Ash. Naive, sure; occasionally cocky or shit-scared, sure. Unlucky as hell, absolutely. But she doesn't really have a chance to create a real character. The story's pretty great - an ancient curse, a vengeful demon with lots of pointy teeth, and a moment's lack of compassion combine to completely ruin a young woman's life - but it's not really enough to save it from moments of dreadfully crappy CGI, a thread of supernatural ridiculousness that somehow doesn't really mesh with the rest, and fact that I couldn't quite parse the relationship between Grace and her boyfriend, played by the winsome Justin Long. It's because it doesn't really matter. Not much matters in the film except wackadoodle demonic insanity - and it would have been fine it it had been just that.
Ugh. It just didn't work for me. Am sad.
January 19 2010, DVD, home, from Netflix
Yeah, well. I wish I could say I liked this movie, but I really didn't. Granted, I was trapped in a sickly web of Tramadol (lesson learned; take no more than 1 tablet, because 1 1/2 is too much) and practically clenching the upholstery on my couch to try to keep the nausea at bay, but even so, I wasn't too ripped or ill to see a failed movie when I see one.
DRAG strikes me as a project that director Sam Raimi had been kicking around for ages, and wanted to "return to his roots" by directing a blatantly silly horror movie with lots and lots of physical comedy and gross-out scenes. Problem is, he's already at the top of the fucking heap with EVIL DEAD 2, and seriously, nobody has beat that (some would argue that Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE takes it, but DEAD ALIVE ended up boring me, and that is simply not possible with EVIL DEAD 2; it doesn't rely on repetitious scenes of gore that end up being mostly unmemorable. I can remember almost every single bit of gore or gross-out in EVIL DEAD 2). He cannot reinvent the wheel, and it was dismaying to see him try to do the exact same thing all over again. For those of us who've already seen it, it's a wasted effort.
I do recommend it to people who have never seen ED2, and/or are uncomfortable with gore but love shocks and wild action. But I think Sam Raimi fans can safely stay away. Alison Lohman, who extremely game, is no Bruce Campbell; her character Grace is definitely no Ash. Naive, sure; occasionally cocky or shit-scared, sure. Unlucky as hell, absolutely. But she doesn't really have a chance to create a real character. The story's pretty great - an ancient curse, a vengeful demon with lots of pointy teeth, and a moment's lack of compassion combine to completely ruin a young woman's life - but it's not really enough to save it from moments of dreadfully crappy CGI, a thread of supernatural ridiculousness that somehow doesn't really mesh with the rest, and fact that I couldn't quite parse the relationship between Grace and her boyfriend, played by the winsome Justin Long. It's because it doesn't really matter. Not much matters in the film except wackadoodle demonic insanity - and it would have been fine it it had been just that.
Ugh. It just didn't work for me. Am sad.